The 34th Annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive took place on Saturday, May 9 2026. This event is America’s largest single day food collection effort and is a partnership between Island Harvest Food Bank and the National Association of Letter Carries (NALC) branch 6000.  This critical initiative provided a boost to local shelves right before summer months, when food pantry donations drop but demand rises.

LMJ Management and Construction participated for our second consecutive year, volunteering for the day at the Melville warehouse. The LMJ team along with many other volunteers processed, packed, and distributed the stock to a network of 300 local food pantries and soup kitchens embedded in neighborhoods across the island. As a Long Island business that looks to support our local communities, this is an event and initiative that LMJ greatly cares about.

How the 2026 Drive Operated

The event utilizes a doorstep-collection model to maximize community participation:

• The Process: Long Island residents filled bags with healthy, non-perishable food items and personal care products, leaving them by their mailboxes by 9:00 AM.
• The Collection: Local letter carriers gathered the donations along their regular Saturday mail routes, transporting the items to central postal sorting hubs.
• The Turnaround: Volunteers packed and sorted the incoming inventory at Island Harvest’s Melville warehouse. Thanks to a fast processing turnaround, local pantries began receiving the fresh stock within days of the drive.

Impact of Stamp Out Hunger on Long Island

• 100% Stays Local: Every single pound of food collected during the drive remains on Long Island. It is distributed directly through Island Harvest’s network of 300 community-based food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelter programs.
• After bringing in over 360,000 pounds of food last year (equating to roughly 600,000 meals), Island Harvest set an ambitious goal to exceed 500,000 pounds of food for the 2026 campaign.
• Randi Shubin Dresner, President and CEO of Island Harvest, has made it her mission to help this cause. She has stated that food insecurity impacts approximately 250,000 Long Islanders (about 1 in 13 people), cutting across virtually every ZIP code in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

While the physical mailbox collection has concluded for the year, Island Harvest relies on ongoing corporate and community drives to keep shelves stocked. LMJ Management and Construction continues to support Long Island Harvest and looks forward to another great exceeding expectations in 2027.